Steve Jobs Tribute Design Lands 20-Year-Old Deal With Coca-Cola

Immediately following Steve Jobs death on October 5, Jonathan Mak, a teenager living in Hong Kong, created a beautiful tribute to the former Apple CEO. Now, thanks to that iconic image, Mak has designed a new ad for one of the most recognized products on the planet, Coca-Cola, according to Creativity Online.

Mak’s fresh design shows two hands in the shape of Coke’s iconic white ribbon that are passing a Coke bottle to one another. The design is currently being featured in bus shelters and elevators in Shanghai and is part of Coke’s global “Open Happiness” campaign.

Jonathan Mak's Coke Design

According to Stephen Drummond, director-content and creative excellence for Coca-Cola in Asia Pacific, the ad is impressive, saying:

“Everyone’s responded with a sense of, ‘Wow, that’s a different, intriguing spin on something so iconic and so familiar.”

Mak, who is now 20 and a second-year communication design student at Hong Kong’s Polytechnic University, was first approached by Coke’s advertising firm, Ogilvy & Mather, in February.

For the assignment, Mak was only asked to create something that would convey, “sharing a Coke.”

Calling his design for Coke, a “happy accident,” Mak is currently an exchange student at the Cologne International School of Design in Germany.

Mak’s Jobs tribute, which appeared on his blog, was actually first created when the Apple co-founder resigned as company CEO last August. However, the image went viral after Jobs’ death weeks later.

The design that started it all

Of his Coke design, which could go international, Mak says:

“I think the way I approached the poster is quite similar to the Steve Jobs Apple logo. ”I enjoy making visual puns. … I don’t want to say it’s my style, but I do enjoy combining elements together to create a joke almost. It captures people’s attention. These kinds of images are quite appropriate to advertising. It takes a second to get, and then there’s an ‘aha’ moment.”